Carbon Management Plan

Plan under review

Our Carbon Plan is currently under review as part of a wider project to develop a comprehensive Sustainability Vision. If you're a member of the University, you'll soon have the chance to contribute through our consultation. This page details our existing Carbon Management Plan, which will be replaced once the review is complete.

A summary

What's Warwick's target?

Warwick's target is to reduce its emissions by 34% compared to 1990 levels.

This is equivalent to a 60% reduction compared to 2005/06 levels.

We need to achieve this target no matter how much the University grows or how many more students and staff we take on.

Taking all this into account, by 2020 we'll need to have cut our emissions by about 33,000 tonnes of C02 per year to hit our target.

Why is that the target?

We arrived at this target based on the Government's legally binding target to reduce overall carbon emissions by 34% compared to 1990 levels.

The target is based on Warwick's 2005/06 emissions because that is when we were first able to work out a reliable carbon footprint for the University.

What counts towards Warwick's emissions?

Our plans refer to both the carbon we use directly (e.g through the electricity and gas we use, and through our campus fleet of vehicles), and to specific indirect sources of carbon (e.g. business travel or waste disposal).

How much money will this save Warwick?

If you take into account the predicted rises in energy prices over the next decade, by 2020, we could be spending around £9,500,000 per year. If we hit our target, we'd be spending around £4,200,000 every year - a saving of about £5,300,000 per year from 2020 onwards.

How is Warwick going to hit this target?

We've already started work on a lot of projects to cut down on our emissions. We've kept in mind that these projects need to pay for themselves in the long run – investing now to cut down on the amount we spend over the next few years. The average project pays for itself after around 5½ years.

However, we need your help if we're going to hit our target. We really want you to get involved with helping us to save energy, so we will include carbon reduction in our curriculum, and support you in carrying out research into carbon reduction. We'll also help you understand how you can save energy both on campus and at home.

How will Warwick fund all this?

Funding for these projects will come from both Warwick and from outside sources. Before spending any of this, we'll make sure that our projects will make real long-term savings, submitting our plans to the University's leaders for approval. Only projects where the benefits clearly outweigh the costs will be put into place.